Case 032

Case 032: Two Ring Circus

Celest St. Claire's Notes

Hey,

As I mentioned in my note, I’m sure that my conclusions will match Sullivan’s. That being the case, if you’ve already asked him about these clues, you probably won’t learn anything new here.

Just a heads up, I actually wasn’t able to get my hands on everything Sully sent you. In fact, I only got my hands on the stuff labeled Clues 1 – 4, as well as a note he made himself about trying to find a code word. I might have a more difficult time trying to help with the case since I don’t know all of the details, but that’s OK; I like a challenge.

If you do choose to use this site, you’ll still need to email Sullivan about the Code Word he’s looking for. You’ll also need to email him the case’s Solution once you’ve figured out where whatever it is you two are looking for has been hidden.

If you haven’t emailed Sullivan yet, you can visit SleuthKings.com/case-032 to send him your first email. When you want to address either of the issues above, just include the appropriate underlined word from above in the body of your email.

If you want to see my thoughts on any of the clues in your case file, just click the corresponding button below.

I’m pretty sure we only need to look at a single word in each sentence. The trick is, we need to figure out which word to look at.

I think Sullivan was right about paying special attention to the handwritten note at the bottom. It must be telling us what we need to look at.

I got it!

The handwritten note’s final sentence says, “I’ll be sure to take one last look at everything before I end this.” I think it’s telling us that we need to look at the last word of each sentence in the ad. When we do, here’s what the message says:

“High Striker find numbers that multiply to create these numbers: 90, 42, 50, 12, 8, 14, 36, 40.”

Clue 2 is a card for the High Striker game, isn’t it? Do you think this message could be telling us how to make sense out of it?

Even though you might have to solve Clues 1 – 4 first, don’t forget to send Sullivan an email once you’ve figured out whatever code word it is that you’re looking for. If you haven’t emailed him yet, you can do so at SleuthKings.com/Case-032. When you want to give him the code word, be sure to include the phrase Code Word in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re talking about.

As far as I can tell, there are two separate steps we need to follow in order to figure this out.

Clue 1 gave us the instructions we needed in order to complete the first step and read the message hidden in the table.

The hidden message is really a set of instructions about how we need to use a quote, right? If you follow those instructions, I think you should be able to find some additional words in the chart. When you do, you’ll want to list the numbers that they correspond to. For each set of numbers, you’ll begin with the “power level” first, followed by the “height.”

CIue 1 told us that we need to use the High Striker card to find the numbers that multiply to create these products: 90, 42, 50, 12, 8, 14, 36, 40. Those numbers are:

9 x 10 = 90

7 x 6 = 42

5 x 10 = 50

3 x 4 = 12

1 x 8 = 8

7 x 2 = 14

9 x 4 = 36

5 x 8 = 40

When you look at the words where those numbers intersect in the grid, you get the message:

“Use Max’s quote for numbers to reorder prizes.”

Believe it or not, that’s not the end! The handwritten note on the card says that “The boss wants numbers, not excuses,” right? That means we’re looking for a string of numbers.

What you have to do next is find the words from Max Musclehead’s quote, “Do you even lift, bro?” in the table. When you do, you can arrange the number pairings to have the “power level” first, followed by “height.”

For example, “Do” is at power level “9” and height “8.” Once you find all of the words from the quote in the table, the numbers you get are:

“9, 8, 1, 4, 5, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10”

Given the first message which talks about reordering prizes, I think these numbers should help us rearrange the random letters that are written on Clue 3.

Clue 2 helped us arrange the letters correctly so that we could make questions out of them, right? Now that we’ve put the questions together, I think the next step is to answer them.

The answers might not spell out a message by themselves, but I think they’ll be useful for whatever we need to do next. Take a look through your case file to see if you can find all of the answers you’re looking for.

Thanks to Clue 2, we were able to arrange the letters into the following questions:

“The King Clown goes by what name?

$8 buys how much ice cream?

What is the High Striker prize?

Who is the baby elephant?

The ringmaster’s name is?”

After searching through everything in your case file, I found the answers!

The ad marked as Clue 1 says that the King Clown’s name is Smile. It also says that a pint of ice cream is $8.

The High Striker card (Clue 2) mentions that the prize for guessing your strength is a shirt.

Finally, the circus poster mentions that the baby elephant’s name is Rena, and the ringmaster is Blaze.

You might think finding these answers has been a waste of time, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. Clue 4 talks about 5 questions that are hidden around the carnival that people are supposed to find answers to. I’m pretty sure these questions and their answers are what the scavenger hunt was talking about.

Take a look at Clue 4 and use the answers to try to make sense out of it.

I think we need to compare the answers from Clue 3’s questions to the list of words here according to the instructions on the back of the scavenger hunt card.

For example, the High Striker prize was “shirt,” right? The only difference between “Shirt” and “Theirs” is that “Theirs” includes an “E.” That must be the extra letter we’re looking for!

Let’s try to find the remaining extra letters from each pairing. Once you do, you should be able to figure out Max Musclehead’s secret.

I could be wrong, but once you’ve figured out Max’s secret, I think the symbols beneath the letters will help you decode something else. If I had the rest of the case file, I’d be able to help you figure that out, too!

Here are each of the extra letters from the pairings:

Theirs & Shirt – extra letter: E

Benzal & Blaze – extra letter: N

Earns & Rena – extra letter: S

Input & Pint – extra letter: U

Simple & Smile – extra letter: P

If you use those letters along with the “I” and “T” given with Max’s secret, the only word that can be spelled is “Puniest.”

I guess that means Max’s secret is that he was the puniest kid in school. That’s not really much of a surprise, is it?

Either way, I’m pretty sure the symbols beneath each letter are important. I have the feeling that they match the symbols on something else in your case file. The problem is, like I said before, I couldn’t get a full copy of the case file. Since I don’t have any of the other documents, I don’t think there’s much else I can do to help right now.

I’ll leave the rest up to you and Sullivan. If you haven’t sent him your first email yet, you can do so at sleuthkings.com/case-032. He’s looking for a code word, right? If that’s the case, when you know what the code word is, be sure to email it to him. When you do, include the word Code Word in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re talking about.

When you know where whatever it is you two are looking for has been hidden, you can include the word Solution in the body of your email to let Sullivan know.

Good luck!